Hello all,

I am new to the site. And was hoping I could get some help for my father. He owns a 2003 F350 powerstroke diesel truck. I don't know the engine size. I think it's 6.0 or 6.4L. But I could be wrong. Well he replaced the transmission on his truck. Being the old handyman he is. he got his tranny from a salvage yard. He put in the tranny and added 10 quarts of fluid. Then started the truck and put it threw the gears. The dip stick shows it's over filled but he says there's supposed to be 17qt of fluid. The truck won't move forward or back. I have a feeling he needs more fluid. Can anyone please give me any help with ideas on what the problem could be? and what to do to fix it??? Thank you all for your time and help.

 

Did you put any fluid in the torque converter?

 

I asked my father and he said no. Which I know is probably not a good thing.

 

Is that a bad thing?

 

No real need to prefill the torque converter from my past experience as it will fill quickly from the pump as soon as the engine is started.
That said, we need to make sure that the convertor is bolted to the flywheel and that when he changed out the tranny that he made sure that the convertor was removed with the old transmission in place - IE - he pulled the convertor at the same time as he pulled the tranny.
The convertor should never be left hanging on the flywheel when you install the replacement transmission as you will likely not be able to get the convertor to slip into the right position in the front pump of the trans when reinstalling.
If the convertor was not seated properly in the transmission's front pump, you will break off the drive tangs in the pump and the transmission will need to be pulled and the pump repaired/replaced.

The other thing is shift linkage.

Make sure that the shifter is in the park position when installing the linkage and that the linkage is adjusted properly so as to be in the correct position for the shifter. If it is off just a little, you're basically trying to get the transmission to shift in between gears..

When shifting a transmission through the gears the first time you should have the wheels off the ground so as to not put any undue strain on the clutches when first circulating the fluid.

Good luck!

 

Hello Bigfoot,

Thanks for replying. I know that he took the torque converter out with the old the old tranny. And the used one came with a torque converter. And I watched him attach the bolts to the fly wheel. And he had to turn the fly wheel manually to do that. So I would think the converter is all the way on. As far the shifter linkage. I don't know if it's on proper. I know the truck was in park when he attached the linkage. Is there a way check that?? The fact that he only put 10qrts in and the dip stick shows that it's over filled??

 

I would disconnect the shift linkage down at the transmission and make sure that the shifter in the truck is in park. Put the transmission selector lever in park. Now when you go to connect the shifter back to the selector lever, make sure that you don't have to move that lever at all when reconnecting. There needs to be a near perfect alignment.

One way that you can verify the pump is working is to disconnect one of the transmission coolant lines to see if any fluid comes out while cranking the engine over on its starter.
Make sure you remove the fuse for the fuel pump when you do this in order to keep the engine from starting.
If you don't have any fluid coming out - you have some pretty substantial problems and it may be time to consult a transmission shop.

BTW - I have purchased two bad transmissions from salvage yards that they swore were in perfect condition. There's no good way to test them ahead of time. Both were exchanged for good transmissions but it was a crap-shoot each time.. I don't buy used any more due to that. I build my own now.

 

There is no need to pre-fill the torque converter.

If you checked the fluid level before running the engine you got a false reading. The engine has to run for at least two minutes before checking the level for the first time. ALWAYS check it with the engine idling in park.

If you checked before the engine ran the trans is probably 6-7 quarts low on fluid.

 

After installing the bellhousing bolts (trans to engine) and before tightening the torque converter bolts, was there approximately a 1/8" gap between the torque converter and flywheel?